Fleeing woman throws baby at deputy

Pensacola, Florida (PNJ) -- A Pensacola woman was arrested after she threw her baby at a deputy trying to arrest her for shoplifting, a news release from the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office said.

The infant was not injured, but 23-year-old Ashley Taylor Wright, of the 1200 block of Wilson Avenue, now faces several charges, including child abuse.

The incident occurred at the Santa Rosa Mall in Mary Esther on Monday evening after Wright used her baby stroller to smuggle about $260 worth of clothing out of a Dillard's dressing room, the release said.

As a deputy approached Wright in her car in the mall parking lot, she told her husband to leave. Two small children also were in the car.

When the deputy tried to get her out of the car, she reportedly held up the baby in the carrier and told the deputy, "You will have to shoot through the baby to get me."

She then ran from the vehicle, tossing the carrier containing the 14-pound infant at the deputy, the Sheriff's Office said.

Wright fell as she fled and resisted the deputy when he attempted to take her into custody. She received a laceration to her head from the fall and was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

She was charged with child abuse without bodily harm, petty theft and resisting an officer without violence.